Lost in the Stacks

Cotton Malone, a former navy man and U.S. Justice Department agent, now a rare book dealer, searches for clues to the disappearance of his father in a submarine disaster off the coast of Antarctica, and finds evidence of a lost civilization, possibly thousands of years old.

The first of a trilogy, this Jane Smiley novel covers the life of an Iowa farm family from 1920-1953.

Raiders of the Nile is the second in Steven Saylor's new series featuring his ancient Roman detective, Gordianus the Finder, as a young man. After journeying to see the Seven Wonders of the World in the previous volume, Gordianus has settled in Alexandria. But when his slave and lover, Bethesda, is kidnapped, Gordianus faces many adventures as he tries to rescue her. He encounters a gang of bandits, gets falsely accused of murder, and learns of a plot to steal the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great.

Memoirist and food journalist, Ruth Reichl's first contemporary novel takes us into the world of a long-standing food magazine. The former Gourmet editor knows this setting and its inhabitants well. The heroine, Billie Breslin, has left college and moved from California to New York City to work for Delicious! an iconic culinary magazine as the editor's assistant. With her impeccable palate and interest in writing, this is the perfect job for her.

In this second book in Donna Leon's mystery series featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti of the Venice police, Brunetti investigates the murder of an American soldier in Venice. At first it seems that the man was the victim of a robbery, but Brunetti uncovers a conspiracy involving the dumping of toxic waste. It seems the Italian government, the American military, and the Mafia are all involved, and Brunetti risks offending the rich and powerful as he works to solve the murder.

Lucrezia Tornabuoni de' Medici is the biography of an extraordinary Renaissance woman, the mother of Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of Florence in the fifteenth century. Lucrezia was a skilled businesswoman who influenced the policies of both her husband and her son, as well as being a poet and a patron of the arts. She was closely acquainted with some of the greatest Renaissance artists, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Daughter of Venice is a novel about Donata, a young woman from a noble family in 16th century Venice, who has to enter a convent because her father cannot afford a dowry for her. She doesn't want to spend her life in a convent, so she dresses up as a boy and explores Venice, eventually falling in love with a Jewish man, who doesn't know who she really is. Will she tell him her secret? And will they be allowed to be together?

The Prophet is a mystery set in a small Ohio town about two estranged brothers, one a bail bondsman and the other a high school football coach, whose sister was murdered as a teenager. When another teenage girl is murdered, the wounds of the past resurface and the two brothers must work together to catch a killer.

The Rival Queens is an entertainingly-written biography of two powerful women in 16th century France: the ruthless Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, who ruled the country for decades during the reigns of three of her sons, and her youngest daughter, the intelligent, courageous Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre.

Signora da Vinci is an imaginative retelling, more fantasy than historical fiction, of the life of Leonardo da Vinci's mother, Caterina. In Robin Maxwell's novel, Caterina is the daughter of an alchemist/apothecary in a small town near Florence. After a brief romance with Piero da Vinci, a young man from a much wealthier family, she gives birth to Leonardo, who is taken away by his father's family the day after his birth. In order to be near her son, Caterina disguises herself as a man and goes to Florence, where she has many adventures and takes delight in her brilliant son's art and inventions.